Quality and Change Management Model for Large Scale Concurrent Design and Construction Projects

Concurrent design and construction has been lauded for streamlining projects in terms of time. However, such an approach may actually make projects more uncertain and complex than the traditional sequential design and construction process. The main sources of risk that have been identified with concurrent design and construction are iterative cycles that result from unanticipated errors and changes and their subsequent impacts on project performance. As an effort to address these detrimental impacts, a framework for quality and change management that identifies those negative iterative cycles is proposed. The proposed framework is incorporated into the system dynamics model of dynamic planning and control methodology (DPM), which has been developed to evaluate negative impacts of errors and changes on construction performance. Relevant to practitioners and researchers, the potential of DPM as a robust design and construction planning methodology that could effectively deal with errors and changes inherent in the design and construction process is demonstrated through a case study involving the Treble Cove road bridge in Massachusetts.     

Avoiding Change Orders in Public School Construction

Increased student enrollment and the current poor state of the educational infrastructure require the construction of more school buildings and the renovation of many of the existing ones. The large number and magnitude of change orders in these projects constitute an impediment to the rapid and economic delivery of these projects. A total of 6,585 change orders filed in a school district’s projects in the 5 1/2 year period from 1999 to 2004 were analyzed in five categories including owner-directed changes, code compliance issues, errors/omissions in contract documents, discovered or changed conditions, and others. The results of the study indicate that the dollar value of change orders relative to the original contract can be reduced if preventive measures are taken. These measures include choosing the right construction management firm, emphasizing the definition of project scope early in the project, and effectively managing the precontract activities by conducting value engineering and constructability reviews. The results indicate that school projects can be completed with change orders not exceeding 5% of the contract value if these measures are taken. This study is of relevance to practitioners involved in school design and construction projects.     

Web-Enabled System Dynamics Model for Error and Change Management on Concurrent Design and Construction Projects

Construction projects are uncertain and complex in nature often because of iterative cycles caused by errors and changes. These errors and changes impair project performance and, consequently, cause schedule and cost overruns to be prevalent. Iterative cycles are more detrimental when design and construction are concurrent and often force activities to proceed without complete information. In an effort to address this issue, this paper presents the information technology aspect of the dynamic planning and control methodology (DPM), which provides a mechanism that will analyze the impact of negative iterative cycles on construction performance. In order to guarantee a smooth application of this method to real-world projects, DPM has been developed by integrating several existing methods around a core system dynamic model for quality and change management and then implementing these methods into a web-based collaborative environment. A case project, applying the developed web-based DPM, shows great potential in facilitating on-site decision making by virtue of its support of data analysis as well as real-time information sharing.     

Managing Tipping Point Dynamics in Complex Construction Projects

Complex construction projects are vulnerable to tipping points. Tipping points are conditions that, when crossed, cause system behaviors to radically change performance. Previous research identified tipping point dynamics as capable of explaining the failure of some nuclear power plant construction projects. These dynamics can also threaten the success of other large, complex construction projects. The current work uses a dynamic project model to test policies for managing tipping point dynamics. The Limerick Unit 2 nuclear power plant project is used to test model usefulness. Sensitivity analysis reveals the rework fraction, strength of subsystem interdependence, and sensitivity of the project to schedule pressure as potential high-leverage points for policy design. The model is used to test policies for managing tipping points that were used to complete the Limerick Unit 2 nuclear power plant after a tipping point threatened project completion. Implications for construction project design and management and research opportunities are discussed.     

Management and Construction of the Three Gorges Project

The owner-responsibility system is conducted for implementation of the Three Gorges Project (TGP). For the construction management of the project, the contracting system, the contract administration system, and the construction supervision system are executed for the project management. Contractors for civil projects are determined through bidding and contracting. The permanent equipment and construction materials are purchased through bidding. Some of large-sized construction machines and mechanical and electrical equipment are procured by the international competitive bids. Qualified engineers from qualified engineering bodies, scientific research organizations, and construction companies are selected for the construction supervision. This paper covers the construction of the TGP in some detail, particularly the main dam structure, diversion work, the construction program, and management, project cost, and financing.     

Analysis of Techniques Leading to Radical Reduction in Project Cycle Time

Today’s construction business relies on first-to-market product strategies to gain competitive advantages and increase profit margins. This has created an increased demand for a high performance capital project delivery system that can achieve a dramatic reduction in project cycle time. Very few decision tools and guidelines exist to assist owners in choosing appropriate delivery systems and project strategies to radically reduce the project cycle time from the preplanning stage through start up. The research presented in this paper surveyed the construction owners and architectural/engineering/construction firms to identify projects that have achieved greater than 25% reduction in overall project cycle time when compared to current industry standards. The data collected were analyzed to determine the techniques that facilitate radical reduction in project cycle time. These techniques include, best practices and schedule reduction techniques as well as the various management techniques employed on the projects identified by the Construction Industry Institute (CII). This research also identified the barriers to radical schedule reduction. The research concludes that radical schedule reduction well in excess of 25% can be achieved through the selective employment of management techniques, schedule reduction techniques and CII best practices. Almost every construction manager can utilize this research to improve project performance whether for radical reduction or simply more effective execution.     

Cumulative Effect of Project Changes for Electrical and Mechanical Construction

Change is inevitable on construction projects, primarily because of the uniqueness of each project and the limited resources of time and money that can be spent on planning, executing, and delivering the project. Change clauses, which authorize the owner to alter work performed by the contractor, are included in most construction contracts and provide a mechanism for equitable adjustment to the contract price and duration. Even so, owners and contractors do not always agree on the adjusted contract price or the time it will take to incorporate the change. What is needed is a method to quantify the impact that the adjustments required by the change will have on the changed and unchanged work. Owners and our legal system recognize that contractors have a right to an adjustment in contract price for owner changes, including the cost associated with materials, labor, lost profit, and increased overhead due to changes. However, the actions of a contractor can impact a project just as easily as those of an owner. A more complex issue is that of determining the cumulative impact that single or multiple change orders may have over the life of a project. This paper presents a method to quantify the cumulative impact on labor productivity for mechanical and electrical construction resulting from changes in the project. Statistical hypothesis testing and correlation analysis were made to identify factors that affect productivity loss resulting from change orders. A multiple regression model was developed to estimate the cumulative impact of change orders. The model includes six significant factors, namely: Percent change, change order processing time, overmanning, percentage of time the project manager spent on the project, percentage of the changes initiated by the owner, and whether the contractor tracks productivity or not. Sensitivity analysis was performed on the model to study the impact of one factor on the productivity loss (%delta). The model can be used proactively to determine the impacts that management decisions will have on the overall project productivity. They may also be used at the conclusion of the project as a dispute resolution tool. It should be noted that every project is unique, so these tools need to be applied with caution.     

Component-Based Framework for Implementing Integrated Architectural/Engineering/Construction Project Systems

Current practices and integration trends in the architectural/engineering/construction (A/E/C) industry are increasing the demands for the implementation and deployment of integrated project systems. Much of the research throughout the last decade was driven by the need to develop integrated project systems and standard industry-wide data models to support their development. This paper presents a multitier component-based framework that aims to facilitate the implementation of modular and distributed integrated project systems that would support multidisciplinary project processes throughout the project life cycle. The framework addresses the specific requirements of A/E/C projects, and highlights the required functionality and approach to develop integrated project systems. The framework defines a three-tier architecture: Applications tier, common domain-services tier, and project data-repository tier. The applications tier includes a set of function-specific software tools that interact with the domain-services-tier components via a set of adapters. Adapters map the applications’ internal proprietary-data models to and from a standard integrated data model. The domain-services-tier components implement a number of generic services, such as data management, transactions management, document management, and workflow management. The data-repository tier represents a centralized shared storage of all relevant project information. The paper also discusses the implementation of a prototype software system that demonstrates the use of the framework’s reusable components and the industry foundation classes data model in typical building projects.     

Impact of Change Orders on Small Labor-Intensive Projects

In today’s construction, small projects can be just as important if not more important than the larger projects. However, small projects are usually fast track projects, which often involve overlapping design and construction time. Subsequent modifications may be required for the sections that are already under construction. These disruptions to the ongoing project are labeled as change orders. The impact due to changes has been described as the adverse effect upon the unchanged work due to changes in the contract. For this study, 34 projects were selected to develop a statistical model that estimates the amount of labor efficiency lost due to change orders for small projects. The variables in the final model are percent design related changes, percent owner initiated changes, the ratio of actual peak labor to estimated peak labor, the ratio of actual project duration to estimated project duration, and project manager’s percent time on the project. The results of this paper are of value to owners, electrical and mechanical contractors, and construction managers. The model quantifies the impact of change orders by introducing the most important variables that bring the largest disruptions.     

Multiple Device Collaborative and Real Time Analysis System for Project Management in Civil Engineering

Complexity in civil engineering projects has increased over the years, which has led to an increase in the number of organizations involved in those projects. In today’s environment, these organizations operate in different parts of the world requiring their personnel to be geographically distributed. However, current project management practices require project personnel to be geographically collocated and, thus, are unable to provide the infrastructure to support geographically distributed project management teams. In addition, current project management practices require access to personal computer (PC) based resources for project information, which is not always a feasible alternative for on-site project personnel, as it requires certain hardware and office configurations. Thus, alternatives to PC-based resources such as personal digital assistants (PDA) or phones are needed for information access. Moreover, once project information has been conveyed to all project personnel, the system should aid them in terms of providing data analysis tools and presenting technical or management solutions to the problems encountered by the project personnel. This paper presents a collaborative project management system with a knowledge repository, analysis resources, and multiple device access to support the infrastructure of distributed project management teams in complex architecture/engineering/construction projects. The primary goal for such a system would be to provide a platform where project information can be effectively shared with any of the project management personnel from anywhere and with a very few limitations on the computing device.     

Dynamic Prediction of Project Success Using Artificial Intelligence

The purpose of construction management is to successfully accomplish projects, which requires a continuous monitoring and control procedure. To dynamically predict project success, this research proposes an evolutionary project success prediction model (EPSPM). The model is developed based on a hybrid approach that fuses genetic algorithms (GAs), fuzzy logic (FL), and neural networks (NNs). In EPSPM, GAs are primarily used for optimization, FL for approximate reasoning, and NNs for input-output mapping. Furthermore, the model integrates the process of continuous assessment of project performance to dynamically select factors that influence project success. The validation results show that the proposed EPSPM, driven by a hybrid artificial intelligence technique, could be used as an intelligent decision support system, for project managers, to control projects in a real time base.     

Forecasting Construction Staffing for Transportation Agencies

When the volume of construction projects let to contract increases significantly, state departments of transportation must critically examine internal construction project management staffing capabilities and accurately forecast the manpower required to execute future projects. This paper describes the development of a model or process to forecast manpower requirements as a function of project type and cost for selected employee classifications. Using data from 130 recently completed highway construction projects and over 11,000 employee payroll entries, regression analysis plots were generated to predict overall manpower requirements for projects of a given type and cost. These overall requirements were then adjusted to predict manpower requirements for individual employee classifications using typical task allocation percentages obtained from questionnaire data. The output from the model serves as input into commercially available critical path method scheduling software to facilitate manpower planning and resource leveling.     

Ontology for Relating Risk and Vulnerability to Cost Overrun in International Projects

Risk management is about identifying risks, assessing their impacts, and developing mitigation strategies to ensure project success. The difference between the expected and actual project outcomes is usually attributed to risk events and how they are managed throughout the project. Although there are several reference frameworks that explain how risks can be managed in construction projects, a major bottleneck is the lack of a common vocabulary for risk-related concepts. Poor definition of risk and patterns of risk propagation in a project decrease the reliability of risk models that are constructed to simulate project outcomes under different risk occurrence scenarios. This study aims to extend previous studies in risk management by presenting an ontology for relating risk-related concepts to cost overrun. The major idea is that cost overrun depends on causal relations between various risk sources (namely, risk paths) and sources of vulnerability that interfere with these paths. Ontology is used to develop a database system that represents risk event histories of international construction projects and to construct a model for estimation of cost overrun. It will form the basis of a multiagent system that can be used to simulate the negotiation process among project participants about sharing of costs considering the risk allocation clauses in the contract, sources of vulnerability, and causal relations between risk events and their impacts. The ontology is constructed by interaction with Turkish contractors working in international markets and extensive literature review on risk-related concepts. The validation test results provide evidence that the ontology is fairly effective to help Turkish contractors to assess cost overrun by considering sources of vulnerability and risk in international construction projects.     

Feasibility Study of an Automated Tool for Identifying the Implications of Changes in Construction Projects

Because of the fragmented nature of project information, decisions on changes in construction projects are usually based on project design instead of project requirements. This research proposes a new approach for coping with changes in construction projects: A change control tool (CCT) that will identify implications of a change as soon as it is proposed. The tool will ensure that the stakeholders involved in the decision process in which change proposals are evaluated will know in advance if a change could cause the project to stray from its original goals, as expressed in the requirements. The proposed CCT uses the building program as a link between client requirements and the building design and traces the different relationships that exist between the requirements in the project. The relationships are traced using requirement traceability capabilities on the level of a specific space in the project and on the level of the entire project. A preliminary CCT model was developed and pilot studies implementing the model have been conducted. The pilot studies have given positive results, indicating that the CCT could identify the scope of the proposed changes’ implications.     

Construction Engineering—Reinvigorating the Discipline

Construction engineering is all about production, and producing something useful is the very reason for projects to exist. How then to explain why construction engineering has progressively fallen out of focus in construction project management education and research? For an answer, the development of the discipline of construction management since the 1950s must be understood, a development that yielded a non-production-oriented approach to project management, one that provides the currently accepted operating system for managing the work in projects. This paper first traces the history of the development of the traditional operating system and related commercial terms and organizational practices. It argues that traditional practices rest on an assumption that careful development of a project schedule, managing the critical path, and maximizing productivity within each activity will optimize project delivery in terms of cost and duration. Subsequently, an alternative operating system, developed and proposed by the Lean Construction community, is described. In contrast to the traditional approach, lean defers detailed planning until closer to the point of action, involves those who are to do the work in designing the production system and planning how to do it, aims to maximize project performance (not the pieces), and exploits breakdowns as opportunities for learning. The history of this development will be traced in broad strokes.     

Risk Allocation by Law—Cumulative Impact of Change Orders

Change, defined as any event that results in a modification of the original scope, execution time, or cost of work, is inevitable on most construction projects due to the uniqueness of each project and the limited resources of time and money available for planning. There are many factors that may cause a change such as design errors, design changes, additions to the scope, or unknown conditions in the field. For each change, contractors are entitled to an equitable adjustment to the base contract price and schedule for all productivity impacts associated with the change. The focus of this paper is to outline the types of changes that can occur on a construction project and also to spell out the financial recovery possibilities that exist for the contractor for each type of change. There are many historical and current court decisions that shape the outcomes of such claims and determine who holds the risks associated with various project changes. Also, an effective cumulative impact claim contains certain vital elements upon which the final outcome will be determined by the legal system. Last, there are certain actions that a contractor and owner can do to either enhance or mitigate the effectiveness of a potential cumulative impact claim.     

Predicting Profit Performance for Selecting Candidate International Construction Projects

International projects are inherently exposed to unpredictable and complicated risk scenarios. To minimize possible losses due to these risk exposures, construction firms have their own procedures or basic tools for selecting potential projects, but they are usually based on the experience and knowledge of the firm’s engineers and decision makers that are often very subjective and lack scientific basis. This paper presents a quantitative profit prediction model for the early stage of an international project as a systematic risk-screening tool that involves the processes of defining, analyzing, and evaluating various profit-influencing risk variables. Various successful and unsuccessful international project cases with respect to profit levels are collected. Then, a scale-based profit prediction model to select candidate overseas projects is developed through factor analysis and a multiple regression analysis. Finally, this paper provides implications for global project management and lessons learned from case studies to improve profitability for international projects.     

工程项目中的合同管理

以某公司为例,介绍了强化工程项目管理中合同管理的具体措施,包括：合同管理机制建设、抓好评审环节、监控履行过程、风险管理、变更管理以及建立合同管理信息系统等。事实证明．加强合同管理是提升项目管理水平的必经之路。     

Development of a Methodology for Live Capture and Reuse of Project Knowledge in Construction

The efforts to share and reuse knowledge generated on construction projects are undermined mainly by the loss of important insights and knowledge due to the time lapse in capturing the knowledge, staff turnover, and people’s reluctance to share knowledge. To address this, it is crucial for knowledge to be captured “live” in a collaborative environment while the project is being executed and presented in a format that will facilitate its reuse during and after the project. This paper uses a case study approach to investigate the end-users’ requirements for a methodology for the live capture and reuse of knowledge, and the shortcomings of current practice in meeting these requirements. A methodology for the live capture and reuse of project knowledge is then presented and discussed. The methodology, which comprises a web-based knowledge base, an integrated work-flow system and a project knowledge manager as the administrator, allows project knowledge to be captured live from ongoing projects. This also incorporates mechanisms to hasten knowledge validation and the dissemination of the knowledge once it has been validated.